Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Irish Fairy Tales
James Stephens · 2022
🎙 Narrated by Anthony K. Futterer (2022 Audible edition)
79/100
👍 Worth It
James Stephens turns real Fenian legend into something lyrical and often funny, and it holds up as a genuine literary classic worth a family listen for older kids and up. The reincarnation frame story (Tuan mac Cairill) is unusual rather than scary, just strange in a good storytelling way — not occult content. Worth noting a couple of different narrators have recorded this over the years, so I can't fully vouch for how this particular 2022 reading sounds, but the text itself earns its shelf space.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Reincarnation motif (Tuan mac Cairill frame story) may warrant context for Christian-sensitive listeners; this is fantasy myth, not occult practice, and warrior violence is standard for heroic legend.. We still scored it 79; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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🎙 Narration: unknown Anthony K. Futterer narrates the 2022 edition, but I couldn't verify pacing or performance style, and an older 2012 edition (read by Kevin Stillwell) exists too — double-check which one you're buying.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety75
Substance / usefulness82
Craft & writing85
Originality78
Evidence & accuracy80
Hype vs delivers75
Age-fit70
Human-eye read80
Penny’s verdict79
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